This question is for writers. If you don't write but you want to see the results, vote for 'I don't write, but I want to see the results'.

When you write, who's doing the driving? You, or your story?
Do you stick to the plans you had before you started writing, or is writing a story bringing you more ideas or leading you to a different path than what you had in mind?

Thank you for taking the poll.
AnnaBtG.

Hello, Anna.

I think I like to put in my two cents here.

I sometimes plan things out in my head. I visualize it in my head like, if this happens thus what would result. Which is not a good thing, because it makes me prone to being runned over or smack right into something. I usually do this on the way commuting to and from work. I guess you can say I let the creativity flow. I find it hard to be creative if your writing a map for your story.

Does this make sense

My sister Naomi has the same problem. She's an architecture by profession. She's always looking up even in the middle of the road! She likes to look at building structures.

I voted that I control my story, but honestly it's kind of a dance... I know where I want to go, but don't always know exactly how to get there -- I like to see what the characters think about it But then, that's still me controlling it, since the characters *are* only in my head...

I used to just start writing and see where things went -- and in at least three cases, it went nowhere for a looooong time So I've gotten away from that, the last few years. I need a plan before I get started, so I don't write myself into a corner. But I only plan out the big events, so there's still plenty of room for creativity along the way.

The one exception is when something just refuses to work. It might be a scene, it might be a particular character choice... but when it's just not working, I don't force it. Writer's block is my mind telling me I'm doing it wrong.

PJ

I've only managed to do that once.

For me, it is sort of a mix. There's three parts for me, characters, main outline, and story.

The characters always control themselves. They tell me when to write, what to write, and how to write it. I just follow their directions. I've often been amazed at how conversations turn out and how character's react, because I'd never have thought of that, but Lois did. (I'm only mildly schizophrenic )

I always outline the entire story before I start writing, or very soon afterwards. It helps me when I have writers block and also helps me maintain the proper momentum of the story. If I didn't have an outline, you'd be stuck listening to me describe a cat for ten pages. I find my outline very helpful in keeping the story on track - especially when you have a "time/date sensitive" A-plot. Then an outline really helps.

At the same time, my outline never looks the same when I am finished with the story. The main points are generally the same, but everything else has been twisted every which way. My story or the characters always take over some section or sections and that changes the rest of the story.

Finally, I have the main story, or the main idea. Usually, I have this idea from the beginning and it stays with me till the end. I've only once ever radically changed the main idea in the story while writing.

Overall, the characters control the story, but they try to follow my outline

Interesting topic.

I voted that my story controls me. Every now and then I write up an outline. Then I start writing. About half way through the story I realize that the outline I wrote and the story I'm writing are two entirely different things .

That doesn't mean that I don't usually have a general idea about where a story is going (as in: Lois and Clark will defeat Luthor, find true love and live happily ever after ) But I let the characters have free run, dictating how I get there.

As far as writing myself into a corner goes, I've never done that. I've certainly had some anxious moments, but Lois and Clark often surprise me by finding their own way out

I very rarely do anything that resembles an outline. Most of my stories ideas stem from a few sentence plot synopsis. Or I have a few scenes in mind that I'd like to see and so, I invent a story to go with them.

I have found that the longer the story, the more likely it is that it will 'find it's own course'. Often scenes and bits that I have envisioned originally, don't work when it comes to those points in the story. Other times, a 'plot pathway' will open up suddenly and away the story goes.

So, after all this rambling I guess what I'm trying to say is... it depends

Tank (who had to search his memory since, except for a few vignettes is back to his retirement)

I can't work from outlines. Most of the time, an entire story starts from a single scene--Little Girl Lost started from the scene with Rachel curled up in the vestibule freezing and dirty. Of course, then you have to write the stuff to go around and explain that! <bg> I may know where it's going, but the characters dictate where things go. Even original characters take on a mind of their own after a while. It sounds trite and corny, but it's true! I've likened writing to being slightly schizophrenic--you've got all these voices in your head fighting their way out.

My current WIP, Innocence Lost, also started with a couple of scenes, some of which ya'll haven't seen yet. Forever and All Eternity (the whole trilogy) started with a scene and a song. <g> I still have yet to finish that one! Outlines never really play much of a part in *anything* I write, I may know basically where it's going, but it rarely gets there the way I first envision it. And the fun, they say, is in the journey.

Laura

I voted 'It Depends.'

When I write my sim posts (and the single, solitary badfic fanfic I've written) I usually have a starting point, and the story just progresses from there. In the case of simming, there's really no end in sight, unless the sim shuts down.

On the other hand, when I've had to write something on a specific topic, like an essay or paper or anything without a story to it, I usually would write the beginning and the end, then flesh out from it.

The sole reason I do use an outline is for time sensitive A plots, where several parts all have to occur on a certain date, etc. I get too confused if I keep it all in my head.

Being the most disorganised writer I know <g>, I usually wait till I'm three quarters of the way through a story with a complex timeline before going "Eeek", rushing over to irc, grabbing my faithful beta and demanding she gets me out of the mess I'm in. Then - and only then - do I make up a really nice, dinky little chart.

LabRat (who is sure Kae is still having nightmares over why it was night in the Alps when it should have been day...)

I voted "It Depends". Usually my stories start with an idea, but I'm always so anxious to get stuff out of my head and on paper that I never want to take the time to write an outline. Maybe that's why I stay away from A-plots that require some careful thinking <g>!

I always know where I'm going to start and where I want to end up and generally what road I'm going to take, but sometimes a detour pops up. Mostly, though, I keep a fairly tight reign and try not to let the characters take me too far off course. Otherwise my stories become far too long and veer away from the basic premise.

Occassionally a character becomes more important or has more exposure in the story than I first planned. A good example for me is in Rage, where Adam Jenkins ended up playing way more of a pivotal role than I'd ever anticipated. He got me out of a tight spot by lending me his point of view and just grew from there.

Lynn

Sometimes the B-Plots can be just as complex and convoluted as the A-Plots. <g> Little Girl Lost was like that. At the beginning, I knew that the A-Plot would be very slow developing and that it was a clever black-market baby ring. What I didn't know is that it would become so intertwined with the B-Plot. Being a different kind of next gen story, I wanted both plots to be woven around children, but I didn't know how much Rachel would take over. <g> I knew from the beginning that I wanted her first story to end with her adoption, and the birth of Lois and Clark's first biological child, but I let the rest develop naturally. Rachel did some things that surprised me, and became essential to the A-plot as well. The lovely destroy-the-bathroom scene is the prime example of Rachel dictating what she was going to do--I just couldn't really stop her! I also knew that that Lois and Clark would only keep her for so long--I was attempting to keep it realistic. I'd actually envisioned it as a short story, silly me, but it turned into a novel. The biggest surprise was when it turned nfic. <g> I'd only ever written one nfic vignette before, and that was because it just wouldn't let me be until I wrote it out. So when Lois and Clark started heading that direction, I couldn't stop them either, because it expressed what they were going through better.

Almost everything else was a surprise, and the times, dates, and locations at the front of the scenes was invaluable in keeping my timeline true. Theough, I bet Robin still has nightmares about me accidently going *backward* a month or two, so that we went to say... January after it was March!

Laura

It depends. If I'm writing a story with any form of A-plot, I need to map it out so I can make sure everything fits together. But I no longer have the patience to write anything that resembles a long story. So I wait til I'm drunk off, oh, Robitussin for example. That was completely the first time I winged it, and I loved every minute of it.

JD

ROTFL!

Kaethel (who originally intended this post to be very short [g])

Great poll - I've really enjoyed reading the answers.

I voted that I control my story, but most of the time it's a fierce battle - the story often fights back tooth and nail and occasionally wins.

I'm an outline person, but like most of the other outline people here, I just map out the big picture and leave the detail to work itself out as I write. That means I usually know what I want to achieve, but haven't a clue *how*, which then leads to vast tracts of non-writing time sitting on the sofa with my eyes closed *trying* to work stuff out.

Timelines can be particularly vexing, I find - but then I'm the person who usually ends up writing out every minute of every day in a story and driving myself to distraction because I know I shouldn't! I envy those who can step gracefully from one significant event to another without plodding through a lot of irrelevant stuff in between.

Yvonne

Yes, that's it exactly... although I figure that lets me work on the story even when I can't be physically writing it. You know, falling asleep, waiting in line, driving (it's not easy to make notes when you're going 45mph! )... Besides, it's fun And yes, sometimes frustrating, until my brain finally lets me in on the perfect fix for the problem.

Once I get that, though, the next five or six pages tend to flow beautifully... I love that part.

I do sometimes lay out the next 4-5 scenes, just to give me sort of an overview of how the story's progressing. Scribbling a few lines and writing whole scenes, however, are very different things! And when I was stuck yesterday, I went back and looked at what I had written and how it was all fitting together. Anything that's more than a few scenes out, however, is generally described as "stuff happens"

PJ

well, i voted ages ago, but didn't post to explain. still not sure if it's worth explaining, but hey, i've got some time to kill. so, here's hoping it's not too boring.

i voted that the story controls itself.

this is basically the way it works for me... my mind wanders. it goes off into left field, because hey, left field is fun. then, wham! an idea comes in and goes "ha ha! bet you were expecting me to be here, in left field, but i came out of right field! gotcha! ha ha ha ha!"

so, i have the idea, and then different things can happen. sometimes nothing happens. sometimes i just jot it down and let it sit, sometimes to never go anywhere, sometimes to suddenly turn into a story 3 years later. you never know.

sometimes, though, i'll just let it stew for a little while... a few minutes, an hour, a day or two, whatever it takes to hit critical mass. then i'll hit the keys, turn off my mind, and let it flow.

most of what i write are short stories, so almost everything was written in one sitting. the story just writes itself, and then i wake up, and there it is on the screen.

sometimes i'll get stuck, and i'll try to let it stew some more and see what happens. sometimes that works, sometimes it just stays stuck. the only thing that has ever worked to get it unstuck is to have someone else look at it and start giving me ideas. usually, i'll start writing back saying "no, that'll never work. it's completely backwards. see, what has to happen is... OH! ... uhm, excuse me..." and then take off writing from there.

otoh, the first time i coauthored a story (back in 96/97), it worked really well. we just bounced off each other. until the guy got stuck with RL and stopped writing back. that story has never gotten anywhere since.

anyway, i just know not to try to control the story. the one time i did that, we ended up fighting over everything. i knew where the story was supposed to go, and it so did not want to go there. i tried to force it, but then it just ended up stupid and forced. i tried to rewrite it a time or two, letting it go the way it wanted, but it had been hurt too much by the way i'd bent it before. just wouldn't work with me anymore. oh well.

so, in general, i get the basic idea, add to it as best i can, partly conciously, mostly not, then start writing, and excitedly wait to see where it'll go.

sometimes, i'm inclined to believe the theory from one of isaac asimov's stories. there's this guy who always comes up with these jokes. known for it. as it happens, he's also a programmer working with an advanced supercomputer. he sneaks off after hours to work on his own little project. people wonder if he's having the computer write his jokes. he always insists that he's just heard them somewhere or other, even if no one else has heard them before.

well, it turns out that he's been programming the computer with data about jokes, but not to make new ones. he was asking the computer to figure out where the heck all these jokes were coming from. eventually, the computer comes up with an answer.

the jokes, it seems, are injected into people's minds by advanced alien scientists, in much the same way that our scientists will introduce other things into communities of mice or rats, to see how it affects them and learn from it. they pick a few individuals and feed them jokes, making them think that it's something they heard somewhere else. "it's just one of those jokes that's going around. don't remember where i read it..."

then, because he's discovered the experiment, it becomes invalid. can't run an experiment like that if the subjects are aware of it. suddenly, he can't think of any jokes. no one can. they look up a joke book and read the jokes, but nothing seems funny anymore. the experiment has ended there is no more humor in the world. the end.

i don't really think that's what's going on, but, the way things hit me out of nowhere, sometimes it seems as good an explanation as any.

Paul

I voted for "It Depends."

When I wrote my first story, Anybody's Baby, that story completely wrote itself. I wanted to write a story where Lois babysat a baby for the weekend and that brought Lois and Clark together. I hoped they'd have their first kiss in the closing scene. Anyone who's read the story is laughing now. Instead, I've got them in love in the opening scenes, a complicated A-plot, a baby that just won't leave, a revelation, an engagement and an adoption. I tried to take control back at one point, by insisting that I was going to make them give back the baby and get their relationship on a more normal track. But I couldn't do it. I actually called Sarah crying. The conversation went something like, "I just (sob) don't want them to give the baby back." "Annie! It's YOUR story! It doesn't have to end that way! No one is forcing you to keep that ending!" So I just gave in and let the story do what it wanted.

However, that was a horribly stressful way of writing for me. And though I'm glad AB became what it did, I can't imagine ever writing a story like that again - have no idea what was going to happen at the end until I got there.

I'm a big fan of outlines, personally. They keep me on track, but let my muse fill in the blanks. Basically, for a 30-40 pages story, I write a 3-4 page outline. I hammer out what *needs* to happen. And then I let my muse figure out how that's going to happen. I have no problem with tweaking outline and changing things around. The end of Playing for Keeps is very different in tone and setting than I originally intended. But other than some surface difference like that, the story is exactly as I envisioned it when I wrote the outline. I accomplished exactly what I wanted to.Some of my favorite scenes that I've written just kind of happened while I was trying to get them from point A to point B. But they still get to point B.

Annie

<hesitant> I voted 'it depends' I'm not really much of a writer, but the few stories I've written for school waffle back and forth between me controling the story and my characters grabbing for it.

Penny

Hey Penny

You've got a good point, tho -- a story really needs to take on some kind of life of its own. The trick for me, I think, is knowing when to rein in the story, and when to let it run. And then editing, too.

PJ
who should be writing instead of writing about writing...